The Devil's Asteroid, Page 2

him. "Evolution turned backward--it can't be true.It's against nature."

  "Martians war against nature," replied Sadau pithily. "Mars is a deadworld, and its people are devils. They'd be the logical explorers tofind a place where such things can be, and to make use of it. Don'tbelieve me if you don't want to. Time and life here will convince you."

  * * * * *

  In the days that followed--the asteroid turned once in approximatelytwenty-two hours--Parr was driven to belief. Perhaps the slowness of theidea's dawning kept him from some form of insanity.

  Every man of the little group that called him chief was on the way to bea man no more. There were stooped backs among them, a forward hang toarms, a sprouting of coarse, lank hair. Foreheads fell away, nosesflattened coarsely, eyes grew small and shifty. Sadau informed Parr thatsuch evidences of degeneration meant a residence of a year or so on theexile asteroid.

  "We'll be driving one or two of them away pretty soon," he observed.

  "What then?" asked Parr. "What happens to the ones that are driven out?"

  "Sometimes we notice them, peering through the brush, but mostly theyhaul out by themselves a little way from here--shaggy brutes, like ourearliest fathers. There are lower types still. They stay completelyclear of us."

  Parr asked the question that had haunted him since his first hour ofexile: "Sadau, do you see any change in me?"

  Sadau smiled and shook his head. "You won't alter in the least for amonth."

  That was reasonable. Man, Parr remembered, has been pretty much the samefor the past ten thousand years. If a year brought out the beast in theafflicted exiles, then that year must count for a good hundred thousandyears turned backward. Five years would be five hundred thousand ofreverse evolution--in that time, one would be reduced to somethingdefinitely animal. Beyond that, one would drop into the category oftailed monkeys, of rodent crawlers--reptiles next, and then--

  "I'll kill myself first," he thought, but even as he made the promise heknew he would not. Cowards took the suicide way out, the final yieldingto unjust, cruel mastery by the Martians. Parr stiffened his shoulders,that had grown tanned and vigorous in the healthy air. He spoke grimlyto Sadau:

  "I don't accept all this yet. It's happened to others, but not to me sofar. There's a way of stopping this, and paying off those Martian swine.If it can be done--"

  "I'm with you, Chief!" cried Sadau, and they shook hands.

  Heartened, he made inquiries. The Martian space-patroller came everymonth or so, to drop a new exile. It always landed on the plain whereParr had first set foot to the asteroid. That gave him an idea, and heheld conference in the early evening, with Sadau, Shanklin, and one ortwo others of the higher grade.

  "We could capture that craft," urged Parr. "There's only a skipper andthree Martians--"

  "Yes, with pistols and ray throwers," objected Shanklin. "Too big arisk."

  "What's the alternative?" demanded Sadau. "You want to stay here andturn monkey, Shanklin? Chief," he added to Parr, "I said once that I wason your side. I'll follow wherever you lead."

  "Me, too," threw in Jeffords, a sturdy man of middle age who had beensentenced for killing a Martian in a brawl.

  "And me," wound up Haldocott, a blond youth whose skin was burned darkerthan his hair and downy beard. "We four can pull it off withoutShanklin."

  But Shanklin agreed, with something like good humor, to stand by thevote of the majority. The others of the community assented readily, forthey were used to acting at the will of their wiser companions. And atthe next arrival of the Martian patroller--an observer, posted by Parrin a treetop, reported its coming whole hours away--they made a quickdisposal of forces around the rocket-scorched plain that did duty for alanding field. Parr consulted for a last moment with Sadau, Shanklin,Jeffords and Haldocott.

  "We'll lead rushes from different directions," he said. "As the hatchwaycomes open, the patroller will stall for the moment--can't take offuntil it's airtight everywhere. I'll give a yell for signal. Theneverybody charge. Jam the tubes by smacking the soft metal collars atthe nozzles--we can straighten them back when the ship's ours. Out toyour places now."

  "The first one at the hatch will probably be shot or rayed," grumbledShanklin.

  "I'll be first there," Parr promised him. "Who wants to live forever,anyway? Posts, everybody. Here she comes in."

  Tense, quick-breathing moments thereafter as the craft descended andlodged. Then the hatchway opened. Parr, crouching in a clump of busheswith two followers, raised his voice in a battle yell, and rushed.

  A figure had come forward to the open hatch, slender and topped withtawny curls. It paused and shrank back at the sudden apparition of Parrand his men leaping forward. Tentacles swarmed out, trying to push orpull the figure aside so as to close the hatch again. That took moreseconds--then Parr had crossed the intervening space. Without evenlooking at the newcoming exile who had so providentially forestalled theclosing of the hatch, he clutched a shoulder and heaved mightily. TheMartian whose tentacles had reached from within came floundering out,dragged along--it was the skipper whose ironic acquaintance Parr hadmade in his own voyage out, all dressed in that loose-plate armor. Parrwrenched a pistol from a tentacle. Yelling again, he fired through theopen hatchway. Two space-hands ducked out of sight.

  "We've won!" yelled Parr, and for a moment he thought they had. But notall his followers had charged with his own bold immediacy.

  Sadau on one side of the ship, Jeffords and Haldocott at the other, hadrun in close and were walloping manfully at the nozzles of the rockettubes. The outer metal yielded under the blows, threatening to clog thethroats of the blasts. Only at the rear was there no attack--Shanklin,and with him three or four of the lesser men, had hung back. The fewmoments' delay there was enough to make all the difference.

  Thinking and acting wisely, even without a leader, the Martianspace-hands met the emergency. They had withdrawn from the openhatchway, but could reach the mechanism that closed it. Parr was toolate to jump in after them. Then one of them fired the undamaged reartubes.

  _Swish! Whang!_ The ship took off so abruptly that Parr barely dodgedaside in time, dragging along with him the new Terrestrial whoseshoulder he clutched, and also the surprised Martian skipper. The rocketblasts, dragging fiery fingers across the plain, struck down Haldocottand Jeffords, and bowled over two of the laggards with Shanklin'sbelated contingent. Then it was away, moving jumpily with itshalf-wrecked side tubes, but nevertheless escaping.

  Parr swore a great oath, that made the stranger gasp. And then Parr hadtime to see that this was a woman, and young. She was briefly dressed inblouse and shorts, her tawny hair was tumbled, her blue eyes wide. Toher still clung the Martian skipper, and Parr covered him with thecaptured pistol. Next instant Shanklin, arriving at last, struck outwith his club and shattered the flowerlike cranium inside the platedcap. The skipper fell dead on the spot.

  "I wanted him for a prisoner!" growled Parr.

  "What good would that do?" flung back Shanklin roughly. "The ship's whatwe wanted. It's gone. You bungled, Parr."

  Parr was about to reply with the obvious charge that Shanklin's ownhesitancy had done much to cause the failure, when Sadau spoke:

  "This young lady--miss, are you an exile? Because," and he spoke in thesame fashion that he had once employed to Parr, "then you're our newchief. The latest comer commands."

  "Why--why--" stammered the girl.

  "Wait a minute," interposed Parr again. "Let's take stock of ourselves.Haldocott and Jeffords killed--and a couple of others--"

  Shanklin barked at him. "You don't give orders any more. We've got a newchief, and you're just one of the rabble, like me." He made a heavilygallant bow toward the latest arrival. "May I ask your name, lady?"

  "I'm Varina Pemberton," she said. "But what's the meaning of all this?"

  Shanklin and Sadau began to explain. The others gathered interestedlyaround. Parr felt suddenly left out, and stooped to look at the deadMartian. Th
e body wore several useful things--a belt with ammunition anda knife-combination, shoes on the thickened ends of the tentacles, andthat strange armor. As Parr moved to retrieve these, his companionscalled out to halt him.

  "The new chief will decide about those things," said Shanklinofficiously. "Especially the gun. Can I have it?"

  To avoid a crisis, Parr passed the weapon to the girl, who nodded thanksand slid it into her own waist-belt. Shanklin asked for, and received,the knife. Sadau was the only man slender enough to wear the shoes, andgratefully donned them. Parr looked once again at the armor, which